I have a huge back catalogue of tapes of music I used to listen to a lot when I was younger, both at school and at University. My recent attendance of a Jean Michel Jarre concert prompted my to want to listen to the old albums again, some of which I only have on tape. Unfortunately with the 100% digital household the re-playing of analogue tapes is not really possible unless I use one of the kids CD/Radio/Cassette players. It would be incredibly easy to just pop on to Pirate Bay, or whatever has replaced it since the court case the other month, and download a nice MP3 version to listen too anywhere in the house or on my MP3 player.
This is where the moral dilemma comes in, I own the tape, I could probably find it in about half an hour digging in the garage but I can’t really make good use of it any more (hence why they are all in the garage). As such it it actually a violation of copyright to own a copied version of the MP3s. I could feasibly create the MP3 copies for personal use with the right equipment (I think I own a 3.5mm connector to play the tape into the computer and hack it up into tracks and MP3 encode them). I don’t really see why I should pay to own it again on CD ( I think I paid about ten quid for it first time round which felt like a lot of money back then), but then if I had lost the tape I wouldn’ t be entitled to a free replacement. It is making use of a freely distributed copy of the CD with no royalties being paid to the artist and in some cases I have bought CDs of things I have on tape because I have found them in discount bins at HMV in order to have a proper digital copy.
I don’t really mind paying for music on the right medium, but not at extortionate cost. I think it would be a great idea to have a trade-in option where you could take your old tapes and get CD versions for something like three pound perhaps up to a fiver which is about what I have been happy to pay in the bargain bins to upgrade some albums.
As this option does not exist though the dilemma still stands is is morally (if not legally) acceptable to download an MP3 file of music you have already paid for legitimately in one form or another?
1 response so far ↓
squarebrackets // May 25, 2009 at 10:52 pm |
[I always thought it was ok to download an MP3 copy of a song if you already owned it and it was only for personal use]
[I recently bought a ten pack of cassettes for about £4 and made an awesome mixtape, felt good to go back to cassettes, I would also generally pick my CD player over my iPod]